History
To avoid being drafted during the Korean War, a 19-year-old Oregon logger with a 9th grade education joined the Air Force. His military career would span three decades and take him to three continents at the height of U.S.-Soviet tensions. He lived in Libya, the Philippines, and Vietnam, making friends and absorbing the history and cultue of each country he went to. That is how he got his real education - by Touring the Cold War.
An series of articles and first person accounts of the rescue and attempted rescue of persons lost in the forested 900 square miles of the Coos River drainage over the years from 1871 to 2000.
A personal, pictorial, and primarily oral history of the small sawmill in the Douglas fir region, 1926-1956
Labor History
"The Wobblies, Solidarity Forever" (first published North Country Anvil, no. 13, November, 1974). "How Dad Joined the One Big Union." "Wobblie Martyrs: Coos Bay, Centralia, Salt Lake City." "George McGovern." "IWW in Coos County."
An account of author's father, George Youst, a logger who joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) at Centralia Washington in 1918. The violence of the Armistice Day Parade November 1, 1918 is described, when logger and IWW organizer Wesley Everest was castrated and hanged by an ultra-patriot mob. The article follows Wesley Everest's career as union organizer from 1912 to his death by lynching, and the author's subsequent employment in logging camps during the 1950's.
Harry Bridges, founding president of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) was persecuted by the antilabor establishment for more than 30 years (approx. 1935-65). One of the weapons used against him was his estranged wife, Agnes. This article follows the shameless exploitation by the Justice Department and certain employer's organizaitons of their soured relationship.
Essays
A series of fifteen essays on the works and personalities who were most influential in the author's liberal education.
Ethno-biography
The story of a Coos Indian woman born on a tidal slough on the Oregon Coast in 1860.
The compelling life story of an Upper Coquelle Athabaskan Indian who lived almost 100 years.
Local History
Local wilderness homesteads, 1875 to 1955. 160 photos, verbatim interviews.
For copies contact author at lionel@youst.com